Students will explore the richness of conic sections by building their own physical models and then constructing more flexible models with Sketchpad. Students retain a solid connection with th...More: lessons, discussions, ratings, reviews,...

A very powerful graphing program that is also especially easy to use. You can graph functions in two or more dimensions using different kinds of coordinates. You can make animations and save as movies...More: lessons, discussions, ratings, reviews,...

Tutorial fee-based software for PCs that must be downloaded to the user's computer. It covers topics from pre-algebra through pre-calculus, including trigonometry and some statistics. The software pos...More: lessons, discussions, ratings, reviews,...

When the sun moves around in the sky, the shadow cast by a vertical stick moves on the ground. The tip of the shadow traces some kind of curve. The curve depends on the observation point, and it also ...More: lessons, discussions, ratings, reviews,...

A pair of congruent triangles holds the key to this unusual Sketchpad ellipse construction. The link to the activity itself is to a zip file that contains both the activity in pdf format and the co...More: lessons, discussions, ratings, reviews,...

This activity is an introduction to geometric constructions of parabolas. We will investigate their properties and characteristics. This activity has been adapted from the following article: Olmstead,...More: lessons, discussions, ratings, reviews,...

With just a blank sheet of paper and a single point, students can fold a genuine parabola. Students model the technique with Sketchpad to reveal the underlying mathematics. The link to the activit...More: lessons, discussions, ratings, reviews,...

Step-by-step directions on how to use the Conic Graphing App to help students learn about circles, ellipses, hyperbolas, and parabolas, and solve for the conic's characteristics. Equations are present...More: lessons, discussions, ratings, reviews,...

Flash introduction to finding the equation of an ellipse centered on (0,0) and with its major axis on the x-axis. Students can use this Tab Tutor program to learn about the equation of this ellipse an...More: lessons, discussions, ratings, reviews,...

Flash introduction to finding the equation of an hyperbola centered on (0,0) and with its major axis on the x-axis. With step-by-step instructions and an illustrated glossary, students can learn how t...More: lessons, discussions, ratings, reviews,...

A parabola is the set of points that are equally distant from the focus point and the directrix. This Tab Tutor program will help you learn about the equation of a parabola and how to use it to derive...More: lessons, discussions, ratings, reviews,...

Flash introduction to finding the equation of an ellipse centered on (0,0) and with its major axis on the y-axis. Students can use this Tab Tutor program to learn about the equation of this ellipse an...More: lessons, discussions, ratings, reviews,...

Flash introduction to finding the equation of an hyperbola centered on (0,0) and with its major axis on the y-axis. With step-by-step instruction and an illustrated glossary, students can learn how to...More: lessons, discussions, ratings, reviews,...

This Flash-based tutorial covers the different varieties of parabolas you can get when graphing quadratic functions. It includes the standard and alternate forms of the quadratic formula, and demonst...More: lessons, discussions, ratings, reviews,...

An interactive applet and associated web page that demonstrate the area of an ellipse.
The major and minor axes can be dragged and the area is continuously recalculated.
The ellipse has a g...More: lessons, discussions, ratings, reviews,...

This activity allows the user to manipulate the graphs of the conic sections by changing the constants in their respective equations. The equation and variable values are displayed and change as the u...More: lessons, discussions, ratings, reviews,...

This material is based upon work supported by the
National Science Foundation under Grant DUE-0226284.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations
expressed in this material are those of the author(s)
and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
National Science Foundation.